Getting Started
Final Fantasy XI is a truly massive and in depth game like no other out there. Unlike WoW, Everquest, and many others... Final Fantasy XI offers a balance of playability, soloability, story, difficulty, history, and most importantly REWARD that goes above and beyond that of it's competitors and keeps players wanting more. This can however be daunting at times. Learning everything there is to learn in FFXI is no small task and the game does not have what would be called a "traditional" way of introducing you to it's various elements. My hope is that this guide will offer you the chance to begin your adventure as smoothly and effectively as possible. This guide will cover all basic concepts including, Missions, Quests, Mog Houses, Home Points, Signet, Battles, Weapon Skills, Job Abilities, Skillchains, Leveling, Skill Leveling, Linkshells, Farming, Armor, Weapons, Stats, Synthesis, Reputation, Subjobs, Chocobos, Notorious Monsters, Key Items, Rare Items, Exclusive Items, Rare/EX Items, Storage Options, a complete solo leveling guide, and the final expansion, "Rhapsodies of Vanadiel." 1.0 - Your First Day! As you begin your adventure you will be prompted to create a character and choose a home nation. The 5 races to choose from are as follows and can be used with any job. Elvaan - Primarily fighters, Elvaans make excellent DD's (Damage Dealers), and tanks. Their initial stats allow them to progress towards great STR, DEX, and VIT making them ideal for the following jobs. (WAR, MNK, THF, SAM, NIN, RNG, BST, DNC, DRG, DRK, RUN, BLU) Elvaan however have one of the lowest MP gain per Lv making them relatively ineffective mages. Hume - Humes are masters of the universal. Due to their rounded stats, Humes can excel equally in any job they choose. This does prevent being "exceptional" in any one area but allows for amazing versatility. Any job is up for grabs as a Hume with their only notable weakness being their slightly lower than average magical capabilities. Mithra - Thanks to their feline genetics, the Mithra are faster and more accurate than any other race. Mithra's excel in AGI, DEX, and CHR. Mithra, like Humes, can be very versatile despite their starter stats and have more potential for magic classes than Humes or Elvaan. Mithra are a good choice for the following jobs. (MNK, THF, BLM, RDM, SMN, BRD, NIN, BLU, DNC, RUN, SCH, GEO, BST, RNG, DRG) Tarutaru - The Tarutaru are an extremely small and physically weak race. That being said, their magical prowess is not to be underestimated. Tarutaru have the highest MP gain per Lv and higher natural MND and INT stats than any other race. Though like any class the Tarutaru can be used for any job, I would not recommend choosing a DMG dealing job or Tanking job as your primary focus throughout the game if you choose a Tarutaru. Galka - The biggest and mightiest of the 5 races, the Galka are reminiscent of the Goron from Zelda. The Galka, like the Elvaan are ideal for DD's and Tanks. Their base STR and VIT is the highest in the game making them absolute powerhouses. Like the Tarutaru, the Galka can be used for mage classes, but it is not recommended as they gain the lowest amount of MP per Lv and their MND and INT stats are naturally low. 2.0 - Choose Your Home! Once you have chosen your race and created your character, you will choose your nation. The 3 choices are: The Kingdom of San d'Oria Nestled in the northern region of the Quon continent known as Ronfaure, lies the great Kingdom of San d'Oria. Home of the Elvaan, known far and wide as some of the greatest warriors in Vana'diel. San d'Oria is led by King Destin R d'Oraguille, and has stood as a symbol of strength and nobility led by the d'Oraguille family for over 500 years. The kingdom was established in the year 385 C.E. by Lanfeaur d'Oraguille with the help of the Quadav. Although technologically inferior to Bastok and Windurst, San d'Orian traditions and fighting abilities have kept the Elvaan so secure, that the walls of San d'Oria have never been breached. The Federation of Windurst The Federation of Windurst lies on the southern tip of the Mindartia continent within the Sarutabarut a region. Famed for the discovery and mastery of Magic, Windurst was founded in the year 294 C.E. by five roaming Tarutaru tribes, which later under the guide of the Star Sybil, built Haven's Tower and eventually formed the five Ministries of Magic that help govern the city today. Over time through a relationship founded from necessity, the Mithra were welcomed to make a home within the city and helped to form the Windurstian Naval Force. The Republic of Bastok Founded in the Year 494 C.E. by the legendary Ironman Mayer, The Republic of Bastok is a nation of free laborers, miners, inventors, and businessmen. Though young compared to Windurst and San d'Oria, Bastok has cemented itself as a major power technologically and financially within Vana'diel. Home to both Hume and Galka, and surrounded by barren desert wastelands, Bastok relies almost completely on the surrounding mines and the ores they yield for economic growth and stability, which in turn has forced an industrial revolution granting Bastok the most advanced technologies known to Vana'diel. When choosing your nation, there are a few things to consider. - Upon choosing your nation, depending on the Race you chose you may be granted a national ring as a bonus piece of equipment. In order to get the ring, you must choose the nation your race calls home. (Elvaan = San d'Oria) (Tarutaru/Mithra = Windurst) (Hume/Galka = Bastok) - What job do you plan to use as your main job? There are quests associated with each job that will be primarily located in one of the three nations. Ex: The quest to flag DRG is located in San d'Oria, and subsequently a majority of the artifact weapons and armor quests are also located there. Though this matters less now that there are so many travel options compared to when the game began. - Travel time, it's a real struggle. The three main nations vary in size and complexity and so depending on your laziness score, you may want to consider the following. Windurst is by far the biggest and most complex of the three nations. It does have a good assortment of home points you can use for traveling the city quickly, as well as multiple auction houses, but loading screens can be annoying when trying to have a conversation via the chat window. Additionally from my experience the Windurst missions involve a lot more traveling than that of the San d'Orian or Bastokan missions. For whatever reason, the game seems to have gone with the theme of drawn out travel when it comes to Windy. Bastok and San d'Oria are fairly similar in size and complexity and offer similar mission structures. '3.0 -' Embarking on Your Journey! :D Once you have chosen your nation and gotten past the long intro, you have several options to choose from to get you started. The order I have taken to over the years involves covering many bases at once to minimalize your back and forth travel times and number of trips. '3.1 -' Equipment First thing, EQUIP YOUR GEAR! Your character does not appear with all of your gear equipped. You will need to equip your weapon and (if you got one) your nations ring. Open the menu (The - key next to 0) chose equipment, select the slot you want to equip, and then the equipment you want in that slot. You will notice the changes to your stats on the left and below as you equip armor and weapons. '3.2' '-' Home Points Next, designate a Home Point. Home points are the short blue crystals found throughout the city you are in. They serve two functions. You can designate a Home Point as your revival place in the likely event you are killed and can be changed at any time by examining a different Home Point and choosing "Set this as your home point" You can also use them as a teleportation system for fast travel. Once a Home Point has been examined, it is automatically registered as a porting point and can be used from then on for a 100 gil fee. I HIGHLY urge you to take this time to explore the city and register all the Home Points. This will be a good habit to keep to throughout the game as they will quickly become your main travel tactic along with Survival Guides which we will cover later on. '3.3 -' Reputation As you travel the town, speak to any NPC you come across. Every town be it a main nation, outland area, etc, will have its own series of quests you can complete for various rewards. To determine what quests you are fit for, the game has a Reputation system in place that grants you a Rep Score. The score ranges from 1 to 6 and increases as more quests are completed. Your rep score can be determined by speaking to the right NPC in each area (Usually found in or around a bar) who will feed you a specific string of dialogue depending on your score. Each town has an individual rep system and score, and quests will become harder as their rep score requirements increase. It is wise to begin as many quests as possible so you can complete many at once with one trip if you know what you're doing. '3.4 -' Quests Quests offer rewards ranging from gil, to items, weapons, armor, magic scrolls, new job unlocks, race and or class specific gear, maps, key items, etc and many are repeatable. Be warned however, not all quests can be unlocked with high fame alone. Some are specific to the order in which they are completed, time of day, specific day, trigger item, current job, race, etc. Some quests don't even show up in your log until after you have initiated them by trading the proper item to the NPC in question. So be creative and open minded to all possibilities and PAY ATTENTION TO THE DIALOGUE!! This game is not one that gives away answers easily. If you don't catch the hint, you will never figure it out and you will be back here searching for the answers. For a list of quests for each area see the Quests page. (page coming soon) '3.5 -' Mog House At some point during your trip in the city, you will come across your Mog House. This is your home and the place you will store the mountains of crap you gather along the way. Speak to the Moogle within and he can explain the various options you will see you have to choose from. There are certain requirements to unlock some of the options such as Storage, Mog Locker, and a few others which is covered in the Mog House page. Get acquainted and head back out to town. Note You will also run into the Auction House and Chocobo Stables which we will cover further on in this guide. For now, you wont need them. Note If you choose to follow the advice of the NPC that greeted you, you can trade the Adventurer's Coupon to the right NPC for a 50gil reward. This is a retardedly small amount of gil, and is not worth your time in my opinion. I usually toss the coupon and move on. '3.6 -' Signet and Conquest Once you have sufficiently explored the city and gathered quests, it's almost time to go fight. Head to a town exit, and speak with the gate guard symbolized by the 2 letter acronym next to his name EX: Aravoge, T.K. - S. San d'Oria (G-10) by the W. Ronfaure exit. Choose to have Signet cast on you. Your signet is what allows Conquest Points to be earned for each EXP granting kill as well as allows EXP granting mobs to drop Crystals. It wears off over time so be sure to renew it. Conquest Points can be spent at the same NPC's for various Items, Weapons, and Armor depending on your current Rank. Signet is confirmed active by displaying this symbol near the top center of your screen. '3.7 -' Missions Lastly, somewhere nearby the Gate Guard, will be another NPC that grants your nations Missions. Missions are how you increase your national Rank and allows for various unlocks throughout the game such as Airship Passes, Access to Dyanmis, etc, as well as increasing rewards in gil. To accept a mission, you must have a certain amount of Rank Points. These can be increased by completing other Missions, or trading Crystals to the Gate Guard you get your signet from. Select the first mission, and head out into the wild. '4.0 - FIGHTING MAKES US STRONG!' FFXI has (in my opinion) one of the best fighting systems of any MMO, especially for the time it was made. I HIGHLY prefer this game's system over systems used in WoW, GW2, FFXIV, etc. To begin fighting, find a target, highlight them and click to open the command menu. You will see Attack / (If engaged) Switch Target, Magic, Abilities, Items, (If engaged) Disengage, Treasure, and Check. Targets already engaged in battle with another player cannot be attacked as they have been "claimed". Once the monster has been claimed it has to be defeated by the claimer or it will simply disappear when it is outrun or the attacker changes zones. Claimed monsters will have a purple name above their head rather than a yellow or red one. Players in the same Party or Alliance can attack the same monster. A party can have up to 6 members, and alliances can be formed from a maximum of 3 complete parties (18 total players) '4.1 - The Command Menu' Attack - Auto attack your target (continuous auto attack.) Switch Target - Change your current target. Magic - List of currently usable magic (Non-useable will not be displayed on this list.) Abilities - The abilities button leads to a sub-menu that includes Job Traits, Job Abilities, Weapon Skills, Ranged, and Pet Commands. * Job Traits - Constantly active player enhancements based on current job/subjob. * Job Abilities - Various abilities for use in and out of combat based on current job/subjob. Use of job abilities generally require a cooldown after use. Ex: (THF - Perfect Dodge - 1hr cooldown.) * Weapon Skills - Combat skills useable in battle based on current weapon type and skill level. Use of weapon skills requires at least 1000/3000 TP - (Technical Points) but the higher your TP at the time of use, the more effective the skill becomes. TP is gained from attacking and from being attacked as well as from certain various spells and abilities. * Ranged - Initiates a ranged attack against the current target. Player must have a ranged weapon and (if required by the weapon) the appropriate ammo equipped to use this function. * Pet Commands - Displays the Pet Commands sub menu. Items - Displays currently useable items. Will not display non-usable items. To view non-usable items, go to Inventory in the Main Menu. Disengage - Cancels the current auto attack. Treasure - Displays items currently in the Treasure Pool. See the related page for more details on when/why items will be placed in this pool. Check - Displays the currently selected targets difficulty related to your level. Keep in mind when using this function, the check result is based SOLELY on your level and does not account for Armor/Weapons/Abilities/Wekanesses/Strengths etc. Because of this, the higher you climb, the less accurate it becomes. The dialogues and related ratings for each are below in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest. Each can have 1 to 2 of 4 total varients to the check dialogue (Low Evasion, High Evasion, Low Defense, High Defense). Ex: "Incredibly easy prey - it seems to have low evasion but high defense." * Incredibly easy prey - Easiest of all experience granting kills. Lowest EXP return per kill. * Very easy prey * Easy prey * Decent challenge * Even Match - Grants median EXP per kill. Considered your equal in terms of difficulty. * Tough - Can be soloe'd depending on Job/Sub/Level * Very Tough - Can be soloe'd depending on Job/Sub/Level * Incredibly Tough - Highest EXP yield per kill. Solo is NOT recommended unless you are a veteran. * Impossible to Gague! - This indicates the enemy is a Notorious Monster and you are unable to get an accurate reading. For more information on NM's, see the "Notorious Monsters" page. '4.2 - Combat Skill Level and Weapon Skills' This is by far my favorite element of this game's battle system. Rather than basing your overall combat abilities and strength on your character level and the stats of the weapon you have equipped, in FFXI you also have a separate skill level for each and every type of weapon and skill set in the game including your magic skills and evasion, parrying, shield, etc. These levels increase by fighting experience granting monsters and using the related skill. (Ex: When you auto attack, each hit has a chance to increase your combat skill level with that weapon, where as each hit you take from a monster has a chance to increase your Evasion Skill, and each hit you parry has a chance to increase your Parrying Skill.) Increases will happen more often the stronger the enemy is, and increases can range from .1 to .5 increase per hit/use. At certain levels you will unlock various Weapon Skills for use in combat, and the higher your level the more effectively your character will use his/her weapons in terms of accuracy, and critical hit rate. Your base damage is determined by STR and your weapon skill level. For a list of Weapon Skills sorted by job and level, see the "Weapon Skills" page. Ex: Fast Blade is learned at Sword Skill level 10. (Below examples are not accurate) Job Level 5 + Sword Skill Level 10 = Fast Blade avg DMG - 35 Job Level 5 + Sword Skill Level 20 = Fast Blade avg DMG - 42 '4.3 - Skillchains' When using Weapon Skills, Blood Pacts, and Magic, players can chain multiple skills together to create additional attacks and damage. These attcks are called Skillchains and can be continued indefinitely if the proper skills are available. Once a player uses a Weapon Skill, the chain has started and the next player has 5 to 6 seconds to continue the chain by using a complimentary weapon skill. If both players land their hits, the chain succeeds and you will see a 3rd animation and additional damage. Additionally, the trigger properties of the chain will change allowing it to continue. Not all skills will chain and so experimentation is key. At the end of a skillchain, a Magic Burst can finalize the chain with even more damage. Depending on the skillchain achieved, the required magic element will change and the player has the same 5 to 6 second window to cast the spell. For more details and an in depth list of skills and their chains, see the "Skillchains" page. '4.4 - Experience Chains' FFXI offers many mechanics to boost EXP gain per kill, one of which is Experience Chains. EXP chains are granted when you fight even match or higher monsters in qucik succession. Each time a monster is killed, a timer starts and when the timer hits 0, the chain is broken. Each kill that adds to the chain lowers the amount of time on the timer so the higher the chain, the faster you must kill the enemies to maintain the chain. '4.5 - Leveling Up!' Leveling up in FFXI is very simple, because there is literally nothing to it. No point allocations, or choices to make because your characters growth is pre-determined until you hit Level 75 and can start allocating Merits. That being said, when leveling up dont forget to check for new spells, equipment, set up macros for whatever new abilities/spells you gain, etc. '4.6 - Solo vs Party' FFXI offers a unique choice most other MMO's do not and that is the ability to solo your way to level 99. It didn't use to be this way but over the years the game has evolved to meet the needs placed on it and the final product is pretty fantastic. You can and are recommended to solo at least until at least level 10, but 20 would be more ideal. This gets you used to the game's mechanics and realistically it is impractical to party those first levels. My opinion is it is impractical to party prior to 25 but to each their own. Past level 10, you can either form your own party by searching for actively seeking people, or join another party in several ways different ways. For your first job, I recommend partying your way to max level as you will also need help later on for the subjob, limit break, and AF quest lines and this gives you the chance to meet people, learn how to interact with others during combat, join a linkshell, and in general you will progress much faster compared to going at it solo. Once you have reached level 99 with your first job, every other job past that point can easily be soloed from 1 to 99 in a matter of days depending on your skills and job/subjob. Be warned, the EXP gain vs Combat Skill gain is not remotely even and so you will likely hit 99 and be nowhere near max level with your various combat skills. Because of this I highly recommend continuing your grind past 99 until you max out your weapon skill level at the very least. You can also complete various Rhapsodies of Vana'diel missions to obtain the "Rhapsodie" key items. These items grant a PERMANENT 30% boost to experience and limit points gained, and a 100% boost to combat and magic skill gain EACH which really helps to even out the gap. '4.7 - Trust Parties' Trust parties allow a player to solo his way through grinding, bosses, and dungeons without the need of other players through the use of automated NPC fighters. Depending on your progress in the Rhanpsodies of Vana'diel expansion, you can get use of up to 5 allowing you to create a full party of 6. Trust spells do not lower the amount of EXP you gain for a fight and are allowed for use in most major game dungeons and battles making them the perfect tool for fast solo leveling. To gain access to Trust magic you must be level 5 or higher and begin the tutorial quest by speaking to one of the following NPC's. Gondebaud - Southern San d'Oria (L-6) - San d'Orian Trust NPC Clarion Star - Port Bastok (K-7) - Bastokan Trust NPC Wetata - Windurst Woods (G-10) - Windurstian Trust NPC Upon completion of one of the quests, you will have access to up to 3 Trust NPC's simultaneously. Each NPC available within the game must be obtained either through completion of a quest (Automatically rewarded upon completion of the quest), by joining a Unity, or through Ciphers which are either purchased, dropped from certain monsters, or rewarded from various quests/missions. Trade the Ciphers to one of the 3 Trust NPC's to claim your spell. '4.8 - Subjobs' A subjob allows a player to add on the abilities and stats of another class on to his main class, allowing a player incredible flexibility when used properly. In order to obtain a Subjob a player must reach level 18 and speak with Isacio - Selbina (G-10) or Vera - Mhaura (G-10) to begin the subjob quest. Once accepted the player will be instructed to collect 3 items from monsters in the nearby area. You will need help for this if you try it at level 18. It would most likely be soloable around level 30-35. After the quest has been completed you will have the ability to assign a Subjob at your Mog House. Your subjob will always be equal to half of your main job's current level. In other words, if you are a level 34 Thief, and you subclass Dancer it will be level 17 meaning all the stat bonuses, abilities, and traits up to that level will now be unlocked. Your subjob will not automatically level up to match the main job and must be seperately leveled as a primary job to the desired subjob level. This means that at max level your subjob will need to be level 49 to be as effective as possible. Experiment as much as you can with subjob combinations. Dancers can heal, buff, and enfeeble using TP rather than MP, and therefore makes an incredible subjob to all damage dealing classes. Warrior is a fantastic sub for any job that wants a drastic increase in raw power and STR enhancing abilities. A Red Mage / Ninja can take on almost any monster solo, and I am including HNM's (Hyper Notorious Monsters) and end game bosses in that statement, as they both have spells that completely (although temporarily) negate any damage, and can stack on to one another. Now include the fact that Red Mages have a spell called Refresh that gradually restores lost MP, and you have a non-stop, and nearly impossible to damage fighter. 5.0 - Notorious Monsters (NM's) & High Notorious Monsters (HNM's) NM's and HNM's are special monsters found throughout Vana'diel that have special spwan conditions and are generally considerably harder than any normal mobs. Of course, they also offer a chance at rewards not found anywhere else in the game. Notorious Monsters range widely in terms of difficulty, spawn conditions, location, and reward yielded. Some are located in low level areas and spawn by lottery among similar monsters nearby. Some can only be spawned by offering up an item at a specific location. Some only spawn within windows at various times after their last recorded death, some are only available after completion of a specific quest, and some only spawn once a series of weaker Notorious Monsters are killed and their corresponding items collected and offered. Most Notorious Monsters have a chance to drop various low to high value rewards, while others are simply triggers for further advancement in a quest or mission. High Notorious Monsters are similar in every way except in terms of difficulty. HNM's for example often have spawn windows varying in size but are often too large for one man to do. 36-72 hours for example, meaning 36 hours after it was last killed, it may spawn anytime within the next 36 hours. Once you are fortunate enough to find and claim an HNM, be ready for a fight as they often used to take down entire alliances of level 75 players. HNM's will fight ferociously and once a certain condition is met, they will enter what is known as Hyper Mode. This is usually triggered by HP% and causes the monster to gain any number of overwhelming characteristics, attacks, or buffs. Hyper Mode often grants the HNM a regen effect as well that will not stop until the monster is killed, you are killed, or his HP is completely full. There is a lot of dispute over what exactly constitutes the difference between the two, but some general standards seem to include: - Monster must be Lv 75 or above - Monster generally takes an alliance of Lv 75 players to defeat - Not found within any "Burning Circle" event - Any Wyrm type mob is considered an HNM - Grants special weapons/armor/items/materials that cannot be obtained any other way '6.0 - Inventory'